Parents

Using ICTs to improve parental involvement, engagement and communication in learning== Andrea Alderman, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Problem

One of the biggest challenges in education in the last 20 years is that teachers expect parents to be more involved in their child’s education and parents expect teachers to provide more information about their child’s education (Selwyn et al., 2011). The problem is that expectations from both parents and teachers creates a disconnect between home and school (Sanders, 2008). Modern parents’ work schedules interfere with their ability to participate in their child’s education (Zieger and Tan, 2012). Additionally, parents have expressed frustration that communication only occurs when students are in trouble (Zieger and Tan, 2012). Johnson (2000) also remarked that while letters are occasionally provided, “print material sometimes doesn’t make it home or out of the backpack” (p. 49). Moreover, parents struggle to coax information about grades and homework from uncooperative children (Merkley et al, 2006). Finally, parents feel that the traditional forms of parent involvement do not take into account the diverse background and ethnicity of parents (Harris and Goodall, 2008). Diversity can cause barriers related to language, culture, socio-economic status and comfort with traditional forms of communication (Rogers and Wright, 2008).

Teachers also struggle to form strong relationships with parents because they lack the training to effectively communicate with parents (Ozcinar and Ekizoglu, 2013). Additionally, schools are becoming larger and more centralized and teachers no longer live in the communities in which they work “increasing the need for meaningful and frequent communication” (Zieger and Tan, 2012, p. 32). Finally, teachers have large classes and maintaining communication with each family is too time consuming so interaction is limited to a couple report cards and a one to two meetings per year (Weinstein, 2005).